Mini Racer

Mini Racer. Kristy Dempsey. Illustrated by Bridget Strevens-Marzo. 2011. Bloomsbury. 32 pages.

Start your engines! Time to race,  
round the corners, take your place.
Ready, steady; green light, go!
Mini Racer won't go slow.
Out the gate and down the hill,
jump a speed bump, show your skill!
Over, under, in, and through,
obstacles are tough to do.

The animals are the drivers of the race cars in this one. And it's just a cute, fun story. It's fun. It's playful. It rhymes. The good kind of rhyme--you know, the kind with actual rhythm. The illustrations are bright, colorful, and match the playful spirit of the text. There are some GREAT details in the illustrations. The things that you probably won't notice until the second time through.

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 6 out of 10

© 2011 Becky Laney of Young Readers

Hot Rod Hamster

Hot Rod Hamster. Cynthia Lord. Illustrated by Derek Anderson. 2010. February 2010. Scholastic. 40 pages.

Great day, grin day, build a car to win day,
Cheer day, chase day, gonna have a race day!

"I need a hot rod!"
"A hot rod for a hamster? You'll need something very small."
"And fast!"

This hamster has big, big dreams! He wants to build a racing car! And he may have come to the right place. He gets to build his dream car. Choose for himself just what he needs, what he wants!

For example,

Old car, new car, shiny painted blue car,
Rust car, clean car, itty-bitty green car.

Which would you choose?

Readers get asked to "choose" on each spread. They can then turn the page to see what the hamster decided.

What did I like about this one? I liked the rhythm of it. The steady-beat-of it. I also thought it was a funny book. Now I'm not one to automatically think a book about racing hamsters is cute or funny. But this one somewhere along the way won me over.

I think the bold illustrations are a plus as well!


© Becky Laney of Young Readers